by Neal Martin
"What's going on here, Mason?" Edger asked. "Why are we not dead?"
"That's a question I've been asking myself for a while now," Mason replied. "Your former boss Rankin was supposed to kill you all. Until he failed."
"So you thought you would just get me in here for a chat, is that it?"
"Maybe." Mason sipped at his drink as he continued to stare at Edger. "I have to tell you, you've impressed me, Mr Edger. Not only did you allude any attempts to kill you, but you managed to track me down and get through all my security. You might even be better than your brother was."
Edger shook his head. "Why, Mason? Why did you take my brother? All those people? Just kids…"
"I'm a scientist, Mr Edger. I need subjects to experiment on. As it turned out, Declan—or Blutwolf as I named him—had an aptitude for taking pain, which made him a good subject for programming. I turned him into a fixer of sorts. Many of the people and large corporations that I have dealings with around the world—people like the ones lying dead in that room downstairs—often have a need for sticky situations to be taken care of in a manner that is outside the law, shall we say. Blutwolf—your brother—would kill and interrogate on behalf of these companies. And he was very good at it, until he had that unfortunate accident in Italy that disrupted his programming. He went off the grid for over a year, resurfacing again when he went after you. I understand he blamed you for leaving him that night he was taken. We talked about that a lot when he first came here."
"In between torturing him, you mean? I saw the scars on him. I saw the videos."
"I allowed my former followers to indulge their more sadistic tendencies on the subjects. It's a necessary part of programming someone. The mind must be split, and physical and mental abuse is the way to do that."
"Your followers?"
"Yes. They all thought they were part of a secret cult." He laughed. "The Red Falcon Country Club as it was codenamed. It was all just for show, mostly. Silly nonsense. I just needed the resources they could provide, and their protection to an extent, from the law. I gassed the lot of them, as you may have seen. Degenerate lot they were anyway."
"So all those kids you have locked up in those rooms in your basement, they're all due for programming, are they?"
"Yes. They were to be sold off as slaves to buyers in the Middle East. To people who financially supported my efforts as a scientist. Not now of course. I'll be moving on shortly, so I have no further need for them."
No further need. Despicable cunt.
"It's funny, Mr Edger," Mason said, smiling.
"What is?" Edger asked, wishing Mason would move again so Kaitlin could get the knife from his ankle and cut him free. Then he could kill Mason and get out before the bombs went off.
"In as much as I created your brother, I also created you as well. When you think about it, what happened that night put you on the path you are on now. Would you have joined the military if I hadn't of taken your brother from you?"
Edger didn't answer, just stared back at him.
"Think of all that guilt you carried around with you. Think of how it made you such a formidable soldier, how it made you constantly try to make up for your cowardice that night." Mason finished his drink and put the empty glass on the arm of his chair. "I created you, Mr Edger."
Fuck you, Mason.
Less than ten minutes before the bombs went off. If he didn't get Kaitlin out of there, she would die alongside him.
"Any chance of a drink, Mason, before you kill me? It's been a long night."
Mason tilted his head to one side, that thin smile still on his face indicating that he thought he was in full control of the situation. He picked up the pistol from off the arm of the chair and stood up. "Whiskey?"
Edger nodded. "Make it a double."
When Mason walked across the room to get Edger his drink, Edger whispered to his daughter, "The knife."
Still pressed up against him, Kaitlin slid her hand down Edger's leg until she felt the knife strapped to his ankle, underneath his jeans. He could sense his daughter's breathing quicken as she struggled to lift the leg of his jeans up enough so she could access the knife.
Behind him, he heard Mason begin to walk back across the carpet.
His heart pounded against his chest as Kaitlin fidgeted to get the knife out of its sheath. If she failed, their only chance at survival would be lost.
"How do you propose to drink this, Mr Edger?"
Mason was standing by the side of the sofa, staring down at him. Edger wasn't sure if Kaitlin had succeeded in getting the knife out in time. She was sitting motionless beside him. "Give it to my daughter."
Walking around in front of them, Mason stopped and stared down at Kaitlin, his gaze going on for too long. Did he suspect they were up to something? It was hard to tell from his expressionless face. Finally, he handed the drink to Kaitlin, who took it with one shaky hand.
"Be careful not to spill any," Mason said. "It's expensive whiskey."
As Kaitlin raised the glass to Edger's lips, Mason sat back down in the armchair across from them again, the Walther P38 still in his hand, this time pointing at them.
Edger swallowed some of the whiskey, and Kaitlin took the glass away, holding it in her lap.
All Edger could think about was the bombs. If they were going to make a move, it would have to be soon.
"I'm surprised you haven't commented on my appearance, Mr Edger," Mason said, clearly taken by himself. "Surely you expected me to be older? You must have seen photographs?"
"I did," Edger said. If his mind hadn't of been on other pressing matters, like the two bombs about to go off that would blow them all to hell and back, he would have questioned more deeply why Mason appeared to be a good forty years younger than in the photographs he had seen of him. As it was, Edger wasn't all that interested, even if he was staring at a near miracle of science.
"My father served under Hitler in the war." Mason crossed his legs, but kept the gun pointing at Edger. "He was ranked Hauptsturmführer in the Nazi SS. A Captain. But he was first and foremost a scientist, and a great one at that. My father worked alongside Joseph Mengele in the concentration camps. Much of the work done in those camps, the medical and scientific breakthroughs, were down to my father, although Mengele took most of the credit. My father didn't mind though, because he was secretly working on a private project that would change everything if he succeeded. He named it Project Red Falcon. He was trying to find a serum that would allow for the regeneration of cells damaged by age and injury. It was the Holy Grail, Mr Edger, that's what my father was searching for.
"After the war, he came to Ireland, to Waterford. The Irish were quite welcoming to the Nazis back then, thanks to the Irish Republican Army and their struggle for freedom against Britain. They shared a common enemy with the Nazis, so my father was welcomed with open arms, revered even. Unfortunately, seven years after I was born, the Hague caught up with him, as they did with most of the Nazis. He was tried for war crimes and executed."
"So let me guess," Edger said. "You carried on his research."
Mason nodded. "Indeed I did. I've been working on Project Red Falcon my whole adult life, until only yesterday, when I finally discovered the correct formula for the serum. And as you can see, Mr Edger. It worked."
A few minutes left.
Sweat ran down the back of Edger's neck.
He had to take a chance. Now.
"I'm very happy for you, Mason, but there's something you should know."
"And what's that?"
"I planted two explosive devices in your basement. They're due to go off in less than three minutes."
Mason lost his smile, and Edger took a certain satisfaction from seeing the man's icy exterior crack a little.
Then Mason started laughing.
"I'm telling the truth, Mason."
Standing up, Mason walked right over to Edger and pointed the Walther at Edger's head. "I have no doubt you are, Mr Edger." He reached into his trou
ser pocket, then and took out what looked like a small black box with a button on it. He held it up for Edger to see, who recognised the device straight away. It was a remote detonator. "It's just I had the same idea. I have a very large bomb planted in the basement of this house. I'm surprised you didn't come across it on your explorations earlier. It's in one of the torture rooms.
"You see, Mr Edger, now that I'm practically immortal, it's time for me to start a new chapter in my life, and doing so necessitates the destruction of my old life, including this house. Your admission has just speeded things up."
Mason took a step closer, so that the barrel of the gun was mere inches away from Edger's head. Which is exactly where Edger wanted Mason to be. His plan was to dive at Mason, distract him long enough so that Kaitlin could make a run for it. At least he could give her a chance, even if he didn't have one himself.
Edger turned his head to look at his daughter. "I love you, Kaitlin."
Mason pulled the hammer back on the Walther.
"Goodbye, Mr Edger."
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Panic rose in Kaitlin McGuire as Mason pointed the gun at Harry. Her mind was already reeling from the fact that she might get blown up soon, so she hardly thought about it when she took out the knife she had been concealing under her leg. She had managed to get it from Harry earlier while Mason was over pouring the whiskey. She slid the blade from under her leg and lashed out at the hand Mason held the gun in. The blade came down on top of his hand and cut deep, so deep she felt the blade grate against the bones.
Crying out in shock, Mason dropped the gun as he drew his bleeding hand back towards himself. "Bitch!" he shouted, as he staggered back a few steps, blood gushing from the wound she had inflicted on him.
Kaitlin barely registered his reaction. She was more concerned with freeing Harry from his ties. There was no way she was going to let him or herself die, not after everything they had been through. She refused to let her mother die for nothing.
A rush of anger surged through her as she thought of her mother, and for a second, she almost ran towards Mason so she could use the knife on him again, this time properly, in retaliation for having her mother killed.
But she was already moving the knife towards Harry's tied wrists. She brought the razor sharp blade down quickly against the plastic tie. Too quickly. The point of the blade stabbed into Harry's palm but she hardly noticed as she forced the edge of the blade against the plastic cable tie.
The cable tie snapped apart, just as Harry launched himself forward out of the sofa, crashing into Mason, who had managed to get hold of the gun again. Grabbing Mason around the waist, Harry pulled him down to the floor and sprawled on top of him.
Kaitlin sat for a second before she realised she had to free Harry's legs.
As she went to move forward, she saw Mason bring the gun up towards Harry's head. Harry grabbed Mason's wrist, and a second later, the gun went off, producing a massive bang that elicited a scream of fright from Kaitlin's mouth.
Her ears now ringing from the gunshot, she saw Harry slam Mason's arm to the floor, forcing Mason to release his grip on the gun again. Then Harry head-butted Mason in the face, the sound of the older man's nose breaking, and his cry of pain, giving Kaitlin a curious sense of satisfaction as she rushed forward and used the knife to cut the cable tie around Harry's ankles. As he brought his legs up to straddle Mason, Harry punched the other man twice in the face, before looking over his shoulder at her and shouting, "Kaitlin! Go! Get out of here now!"
Kaitlin shook her head. "I'm not leaving you!"
Harry leaned forward and lifted the gun off the floor, pointed it at Mason's head. "Get to the lift, Kaitlin! I'll be there now. Go!"
She knew what he was going to do, that's why he told her to go to the lift. A part of her wanted to stay, to watch her father shoot the man responsible for her mother's murder, but some other part of her told her to do as Harry said, that she really didn't want to see what was going to happen next.
Kaitlin ran across the big open room to the lift and pressed the button on the wall to open the elevator doors. As she waited the interminable seconds it took for the doors to open, she looked over at Harry, who now had the barrel of the gun pressed against Mason's forehead.
Don't look. Turn away.
The lift doors opened and she stepped inside, keeping her finger on the button to prevent the doors from closing again.
A second later she heard the shot.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Edger saw the fear in Mason's eyes and he took great satisfaction from it. "Let's see how fucking immortal you are after this," he hissed.
"No…" Mason said.
Edger pulled the trigger on the Walther and the 9mm slug powered into Mason's skull, blowing the back of his head out, splaying his brains across the shag pile carpet.
Edger couldn't help staring at the dead man, half expecting Mason to come alive again thanks to the serum in his system.
But Mason didn't. He stayed as dead as anyone else with a bullet in their head.
Then Kaitlin's voice from across the room broke through Edger's reverie. "Daddy!"
He blinked, as if awakening from a daze.
The bombs.
"Fuck!"
He stood up and went to run for the lift, but then he spotted the remote detonator lying on the floor next to Mason's body. He quickly grabbed the small plastic box and then sprinted for the lift.
When he got into the lift, he stabbed the button for the second floor and the lift doors closed.
"Kaitlin," he said, picking his daughter up. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she said, throwing her arms around him. "I thought you were going to die."
Dread filled him all at once. They would both die if they didn't make out of the house in time.
The lift seemed to take forever, even though it was only going down one floor. "Come on, come on…"
Finally the doors opened and he burst out of the metal box, his daughter in his arms as he sprinted down the hallway, turning left, then running down the longer hallway to the stairs.
He was halfway down the stairs when the first bomb went off.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
The noise of the massive explosion jolted Black back into full waking consciousness again, as he felt his body lift off the floor with the shock waves. His eyes snapped open as he took a huge shuttering breath.
Am I dead? What's happening?
He could hardly feel his body anymore. Numbness infiltrated every part of him.
Jessica. Where's Jessica? She was here a minute ago…
"Jessie…"
No reply.
Then a figure standing over him. "Black? Black!"
A hand slapped him across the face.
He focused his eyes. A familiar face looked down at him. "Edger?"
"It's me, Black. We're getting you out of here."
Black felt himself get pulled up, followed by a massive jolt of pain that shot up his left side.
He screamed.
Then he felt the floor underneath him again.
"Black, you have to get up…"
He forced his eyes open. A different face peered down at him. A girl's face. "Jessie?"
"Black! The next bomb is going to go off any second!"
"I'm sorry, Jessie…"
"Get out of here, Kaitlin! Run!"
"Leave me…" Black breathed, focusing in on Edger's face again.
"I'm sorry, Black…"
Then he was alone again.
A curious peace came over him right before the next bomb went off, and the floor underneath him opened like a giant maw and swallowed him up.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
The second bomb went off just as Edger ran out through the front doors, and he felt the foundations of the house begin to collapse beneath his feet, the ceilings already crashing down behind him like an earthquake had hit the house.
Kaitlin stood at the edge of the driveway, where the tarmac met
the grass of the front lawn. Edger ran to her, picked her up and kept running, out onto the grass for at least two hundred yards, before he stopped and turned around.
A huge crack had split the house practically in half, and the two halves were falling in on each other, making a colossal noise as brick and plaster crumbled to the ground, sending plumes of smoke and dust up into the night sky.
The Red Falcon Country Club was no more.
I hope you're satisfied, Declan. Wherever you are.
"Daddy?"
Edger looked down to see his daughter facing the other way. He turned around to see a group of ghostly figures standing about fifty yards away, as they stared towards the crumbling Mason house. "Jesus."
The kids from the basement. Black must have got them out. They all stood naked, over a dozen of them.
"Who are they?" Kaitlin asked.
"Lost souls," Edger replied quietly.
"Should we help them?"
"No, there's nothing we can do for them. Other people will help them."
Sirens were beginning to echo in the distance. It wouldn't be long before the authorities arrived to see what was going on.
They couldn't exactly leave through the front gate, so Edger elected to grab Kaitlin in his arms again, and run back up through the forest to where he and Black had first infiltrated the estate earlier.
He didn't stop running until he got to the gate that led to the dirt track where Black's car was parked further down. After helping Kaitlin over the gate, he jumped over himself, walked down the dirt track a bit, then stopped and turned around.
He took the remote detonator out of his pocket as he looked towards the forest.
"Just in case."
He pressed the button on the small box.
Exactly one second later, a massive explosion occurred at the Mason house, an explosion that lit up the whole night sky and surrounding forest, sending a fireball followed by a great mushroom cloud of smoke and dust up into the air.